He's Gone
by ToManyLetters
Summary: It's been years since Pansy left Hogwarts, and several months since her break-up with Draco. The news, however, still hurts. Response to the Valentine's Day Challenge at the Reviews Lounge.


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**He's Gone  
A**_** Harry Potter **_**FanFic**

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**Response to the _Reviews Lounge Valentine's Day Challenge_**

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Pansy lay stretched out languorously across the sofa in her front room. Her face was smashed against the blue cushion she'd pulled up as a pillow sometime during the night. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was still, calm, and peaceful, and her left hand was tangled slightly in her messy black hair. 

She wore only a green blouse – she had expected to fall asleep on the sofa last night. It had become something of a habit after Draco had left her several months before. Sleeping on such a large mattress as she housed in her bedroom left one feeling alone and lost to the infinite space; there no one to cling to, no one to hold and to love, to take away the aching void that had for far too long now filled her heart.

There was a knock at the door. Pansy pulled her hand from her face, silently cursing her long hair as she disentangled it from her fingers and pulled it out from in front of her eyes. She groaned as she sat up, stretching her arms outward, over her head, batting her eyes repeatedly to rid them of the sleepy grogginess that threatened to re-take her .

As the knock at the door sounded again, she turned to her Slytherin clock above the mantle of her fireplace. It was half-past noon. She'd slept in a bit much, but it was Saturday, so she shrugged it off.

"Who is it?" she finally called, standing to slip on a pair of shorts.

"Blaise," was the muffled reply that came through the door, "Pans, I've got some news."

"Well, what is it?" she said, putting her hand on her hips.

"Aren't you going to let me in?" Blaise whined in return, she could hear the shivering in his voice. "It's freezing out here."

Pansy smirked her favourite smirk as she picked up her wand from the floor next to the sofa. "Just a minute, Blaise," she said sweetly, "I've got to find my wand." She loved playing games with him, and this seemed as an opportune time as any.

"Pansy, please," he said in annoyance. She could hear him rather clearly, despite his being on the opposite side of the door. "Pretty, pretty please? You can just unlock – "

"Who's the best witch to walk the earth?" Pansy said in a nearly sing-song voice. "And don't you dare say Draco Malfoy!"

She expected to hear a momentary snigger, but was met only with a short, dreary silence, and a forced, "it's always been you, Pansy". She frowned. He was getting bad at playing her games. She'd punish him later, she noted mentally before waving her wand at the door, granting a shivering Blaise entrance to her home.

"Thanks," he said sincerely, closing the door behind him.

"So," Pansy said simply, taking a single step toward him as she acted in her most nonchalant sort of way, "what brings you here?" It was then she noticed that he wasn't smiling.

"I have news," he said softly, putting his hand into his pocket. "News that..." he trailed off, pulling a small, white card from his coat, and taking several steps toward her as he opened it.

She let her eyes dart over the few lines of text that were written on the pasty interior of the card, only to close them and let her shoulders sink, her head fall.

_Draco Malfoy and Astoria Greengrass  
are proud to invite you to their wedding,  
February 16th, 2002 at Malfoy Manor_

Her legs gave out from underneath her, her body went spiralling toward the ground, caught at the last moment by Blaise's tight embrace. He pulled her close to his body and held her, hugging her tightly while searching for the right words to say.

"I'm sorry," he whispered gently kissing her forehead. "I suppose I knew this would upset you, but you needed to know."

She nodded curtly, pulling away from him as she wiped a fresh tear from her cheek. She hated it when she cried, especially in front of people, it made her seem weak, something, she reminded herself repeatedly, that she was_ not._

"Just go," she whispered through her tears.

He grimaced, replacing the card in his jacket. "If you need anything – "

"Please," she insisted, "just – just go."

He nodded reluctantly and turned to leave, seeing her sink to the floor as he opened and closed the front door. As she heard the faint sound of his Disapparition, she let herself slip into the vortex of emotions that now ran rampant within her.

She supposed she was foolish, knowing that their relationship had ended on that _dreadful_ Valentine's Day only a few months before, but the pain insisted on clawing at her heart. The tears flowed freely, gradually darkening the Slytherin green of her shorts more with each that landed.

She sobbed even louder as she felt her left ring finger. It was barren, devoid of the slightest jewellery, as naked and alone as she felt.

She could see it all clearly in her mind's eye – a cheery Draco Malfoy at his manor, sliding the ring up a slender finger, a finger that was supposed to be hers, but never would, never could be. She felt a sudden surge of anger build within her. Her hands bunched into fists; her fingers dug into the palm of her hand as she let out a growl of frustration.

In a fit, she grabbed the nearest thing to her – a book on her coffee table, and slung it across the room. It gave an only slightly satisfying thump as it crashed into the wall and landed below. She laughed a maniacal laugh and grabbed another, repeating the motion, cackling loudly as it landed perfectly on the one previous.

She reached for the next book on the table. It was dark green with a fine silver lettering of her name on its cover. She sighed softly, realising that it was her journal that she now held in her hands. Wearing much the same grimace as Blaise had left with, she opened it to a random page and read her own, messy scrawl.

_October 7, 1996  
Draco has to be a moron, seriously. I've tried every move Millicent told me and he's not caught on a single time. I think he must be gay, 'cause that's all that can explain why he's not asked me to Hogsmeade yet._

_Daphne says I should just go out with Blaise. He's asked twice now and is a pretty nice guy, even if he thinks that Weasley girl's ... what was it he said? "Cute". I think I just about died laughing when he told me. It was supposed to be a secret but, well, you know how I am._

She laughed fondly at that memory. Blaise had tried to ask her to Hogsmeade _repeatedly, _he'd even tried to hint that he had a thing for Weaselette to make Pansy jealous, but she just hadn't been interested. Pansy turned the page and began to read the next entry.

_October 9, 1996  
Scratch what I said, Draco is definitely _not _gay! He _finally _got the nerve to ask me to Hogsmeade! Millicent nearly peed her pants when I told her; Daphne just rolled her eyes and walked away from me – I swear that witch is jealous. I'm so excited! I can't wait to go! This has to be the best day of my life – I wonder if we can sneak into the Hog's Head and get some Firewhiskey to celebrate._

She heard herself let out an uncharacteristically girlish giggle before she covered her mouth with her hand to stop herself. Had she really been _that _excited about a Hogsmeade trip?

She flipped the page a few more times, landing on the entry recording her day in the Wizarding village in greater detail than she remembered writing.

_October 26, 1996  
Today, Draco and I went to Hogsmeade together for our first date – hopefully of many. First, we went out to the Three Broomsticks – he was too chicken to risk sneaking into the Hog's Head, and had ourselves a few Butterbeers which were, of course, fantastic as always._

_We went into Zonko's and bought a few things to get back at Potter later – I _know _it's him that stuffed Draco's bed full of Dungbombs – and then went to the Shrieking Shack for a while. _

_Hell, who am I kidding! It wasn't a while – it was the whole rest of the time. It was cold, snowy, but it was an awesome place to shag. We didn't though, bummer. But he did kiss me._

She laughed at herself for so desperately wanting to be intimate with Draco. She'd been several times since she'd written the entry, of course, but coming from her sixteen-year-old hand just made it hilarious in its own fashion.

She turned to the last page of the journal. It was blank. Automatically, she grabbed her quill and dated the top of the page February 13th. In her head was the poem sung in the echoey halls of Hogwarts, the school she'd attended what seemed like a lifetime ago. She changed the words in her mind, filled them with her anger and need for relief and wrote what came to her mind.

_His eyes are as icky as freshly peed-on snow,  
His hair has the sheen of my eyes when I'm bored,  
I'm glad he's not mine, he's really quite blind,  
The zero who slept with the Dark Lord._

She giggled at how childish the lyrics sounded, but sighed contentedly, clutching the journal to her chest as she leant backward against the base of her sofa.

There was a tapping on her window across the room. She could see Blaise's tawny owl beating its small wings rapidly to keep itself aloft. She smiled slightly, setting her journal down beside her and walked to open the window to allow the bird inside.

The owl hooted its thanks and went straight toward the ground releasing its large package for her viewing. It was the biggest box of chocolates she'd ever seen, let alone received. Attached was a short note, written in Blaise's beautiful handwriting.

_Want to talk? I'll be in Hogsmeade in an hour._

_Love,  
Blaise_

_P.S. Don't eat all the chocolate at once, you'll get sick._

She laughed softly at his concern for her well-being and turned the paper over to write her reply.

_I'll be there._

_Thanks,  
Pansy.  
_

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**_Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed. Please review!  
_**


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